WHEAT FREE GLUTEN FREE BANANA CORN BREAD

4 to 6 bananas depending on size.

(this recipe is very forgiving with

variations in amounts still producing

a happy outcome)

2 cups corn flour

2 cups corn meal

1 cup ground flax

1 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

4 Tablespoons olive oil

caraway seed

BLEND TOGETHER WELL

Have an additional 1/2 cup of ground

flax soaking in water. This will be your

egg substitute.

Mash bananas

1-2 cups of butter milk. I keep adding until

I have the consistancy I'm happy with. Thick,

moist, not runny. I mix my banana, buttermilk and

soaked flax together before mixing with the

dry ingredients. Gently stir the wet into the dry.

Add more buttermilk as needed.

Ready to bake

360 oven for about an hour.

Best served right out of the oven

Refrigerate. . .serve toasted

Good with marmalade.

BLACK AND WHITE GYOTAKU TOTE BAGS

I made several of these gyotaku

tote bags last year for gifts.

I used acrylic paints.

My brother caught the fish for me in Oregon.

They reside in my freezer and can be used

multiple times.

Lots of room and pockets. Good for

shopping, diaper bags or work totes.

These would make a nice keepsake of a special

fishing trip.

COTTON FLUFF CRAFT

For the past month this lovely cotton fluff

has been floating through the air like a

gentle dry snowstorm.

There is an abundance of it everywhere I

can't help wondering how I might make use of it.

In just a couple of mornings I have collected

plenty to experiment with. I need

to keep a mesh screen over the box as it

is so light. With the slightest movement of air it

starts to float all about my house.

I collected my cotton from the park near my house.

The cotton congregates along the edges of pathways and waterways alike.

A fairyland on a still spring morning.

I have removed all the cotton fluff from the

seed pods. The pods are from the Black Cottonwood trees.

I mixed the cotton with water in a small blender.

I also added some crushed dried roses that

my husband had given me for valentine's day.

I added blackberry juice and white glue to

the wet fluff I had placed in cookie cutters.

Mixing blackberry juice with white glue.

I always keep blackberry juice refrigerated

as I like painting with it.

I also made some of my project plain,

 heart shaped and uncoloured.

I dried them in a low oven. They come out

 light and fluffy.

I also tried making some fluff into "paper."

It didn't hold its shape. "scrapped" that idea!

 

A lovely fluffy blackberry heart.

Already for a craft project.

HANDCRAFTED PAPER

Mix shredded paper and "cotton" from the

Cottonwood trees in a blender with water.

When well blended you have your slurry.

I've collected a whole box of cotton from the

Cottonwood trees.

The cottonwood seed pods cover the ground like snow.

The bits of fluff picked up by the wind swirl about

like a gentle snowstorm.

I mixed more cotton into the slurry.

Once well mixed I poured the slurry

onto a mesh screen.

We pressed the slurry into place covering

the entire screen.

We pressed flower petals, leaves, dandelion seeds

and dried tea into our wet slurry.

Once we have completed our design we placed

our "paper in a low oven to speed the drying process.

Once dry it is ready to cut into whatever

shape you like.

These paper hearts are made by putting the

wet slurry in a heart shaped cookie cutter.

I've incorporated this paper in a mobile.

Wasps are masters at making paper.